


Sleeping with the Enemy

by rikyl



Category: Parks and Recreation
Genre: Episode: Go Big or Go Home, F/M, Season 3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-05-18
Updated: 2011-05-18
Packaged: 2018-10-18 05:52:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10610607
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rikyl/pseuds/rikyl
Summary: Go Big or Go Home AU in which Leslie decides she has a better chance to get what she wants if she seduces Ben.Originally written for the old NBC kinkmeme on LJ.





	

Ann was steadfastly refusing Leslie’s suggestion to date/seduce Chris into giving the parks department more money. And as disappointed as she was, Leslie had an idea that it probably wouldn’t have worked anyway. Spectacularly good-looking men such as Chris didn’t have trouble finding women to date. He certainly wouldn’t mind dating her, but he probably wouldn’t be so grateful he’d reciprocate in the way she wanted.

Besides, Chris wasn’t really the problem anyway. Even if Ann seduced Chris, and he said yes to giving the parks department more money, what difference would it make? Chris was always saying yes. And then turning to Ben, who was always saying no.

Ben was the real problem. It crossed Leslie’s mind that maybe a better strategy would be to dispatch her friend to date Ben. Ann probably wouldn’t even have to do much—she bet Ben had been pretty hard-up, because who would date a guy like that? He would be so blown away by the opportunity just to sit across the table from beautiful, amazing Ann, he’d owe Leslie everything just for making it happen.

But something about the idea bugged her, so she didn’t even suggest it. She wasn’t sure quite what it was, but she chalked it up to the fact that Ann didn’t deserve that. She shouldn’t have to spend a single moment with someone so robotic, so unfeeling, so absolutely infuriating …

Leslie’s heart started to beat a little faster, her blood boiling at the thought of him. He made her so angry. He made her want to … she didn’t even know.

No, it was certain, she would have to do this herself. Take the bullet, fall on the sword, date the jerky state auditor. She had to. She had run out of options, her department was suffering, and this was the end of the line.

When she approached him, Ben glanced up from his spreadsheets, the corners of his mouth twitching and his eyes flickering with a trace of amusement before settling back into their usual unfeeling expression. She found it annoying—why didn’t he ever seem to take her seriously?

Returning his attention to his spreadsheets, he didn’t look at her as he said wryly, “We’ve been over this, Leslie. There’s no money for you. It’s simply not there.”

“I wasn’t … you don’t know why I’m here,” she snapped at him, setting her jaw. How dare he imply she was so predictable? Yes, she had been to his office numerous times this summer, but each time she had a very specific reason, a well-thought-out argument for something that mattered.

Taking a deep breath, she tried to calm herself down so that she might actually have a chance of pulling this off. “I know we’ve had our disagreements. But you’re still new in town, and you probably don’t know too many people, and I was feeling badly about the way things have been going, so …” Ben glanced up at her, his brow furrowed quizzically, and she wondered if other women found him attractive. All that stupid hair, all those strange angles on his face, all those hideous shirts. Who did he think he was?

“Yes?” Ben asked her, and she realized she hadn’t actually asked him anything yet.

“Would you want to have dinner with me tonight? You know, just, um …”

“Seriously? Um … yeah, thanks, I’d like that.” And he actually looked happy at the idea, kind of shy and hopeful. She smiled back at him momentarily before remembering what a detestable person he was. 

She was going to have to be at the top of her game tonight so she didn’t fall for any of his stupid-awesome-hair-shy-smile shenanigans. 

“So … pick you up at 7?” Ben asked tentatively.

He wanted to pick her up at her house? Something about that just made this seem less like a very clever budget-manipulating plan and more like an actual date. But maybe that was a good thing. Maybe that meant her plan was already working. She smiled at him intentionally this time. “Yeah, it’s a date, Ben. I’ll see you then.” 

\--

Making small talk with an unpleasant state auditor over dinner wasn’t nearly as painful as she’d been expecting. In fact, and maybe this was because of her total lack of interest in him and the absence of pressure resulting from that, but this was one of the least awkward first-date experiences she’d ever had. She hadn’t consulted her conversation topic notecards once.

He made her laugh with some of his horror stories from the road, and she returned the favor by telling him about the uproar she’d caused by marrying two gay penguins at the zoo. It was one of her better stories, but half the reason she shared it was because this was all a little too easy, and she needed to remind herself that Ben wasn’t on her side. He would have been one of the people back then telling her what a stupid, offensive, inappropriate thing she had done.

But his smile was almost affectionate when he said, “Penguin wedding. That’s cute.”

“It was cute!” she agreed happily. But wait, he wasn’t supposed to agree with her. He was the enemy, wasn’t he?

Confused, she tried to refocus on the goal at hand. “What foods do you find sexy, Ben?” she asked in her most becoming voice.

He looked startled, almost scared, which was kind of mean, because she was trying to be seductive, and she could be a seductive person, and he shouldn’t look so surprised by that.

“Seriously? You’re asking me that?”

She felt embarrassed and tried to cover. “Yeah. Ann and I were just discussing this, and I said turkey chili, and she seemed to disagree. So now I’m just taking a poll. I’m asking everybody.”

He laughed at her, and she steeled herself to be made fun of. “Turkey chili, that’s not … that’s not a first-date food. That’s not a trying-too-hard-to-impress someone food. That’s … comfort food, that’s relationship food. Something you make when you’re staying in and cooking and watching a movie and enjoying each other’s company.” He paused, looked down at his plate instead of at her, like this was making him uncomfortable. “So, yeah … I could see how that would be sexy.”

She smiled at him reflexively, because, yeah, that was pretty much the entire attraction of a food like turkey chili. She wasn’t somebody who enjoyed the chase, the awkwardness of early dates, the trying to impress someone. She just suffered through all that hoping to get to the turkey-chili part of a relationship.

Not with Ben, of course. With … someone nice. Someone else who would say the exact same thing he just said.

And oh boy, this wasn’t going as planned, and she started to berate herself in her head. She had to be sharper. She had to be less easily mollified by his crooked smile and his surprising appreciation for comfort foods. She had to remember the very important reasons she was here. There were jobs on the line, children’s happiness on the line. 

And maybe this was her moment. Ben seemed to be as receptive as he was ever going to be, so …

She casually swiped a hand across her neck area, playing with the neckline of her blouse, until—

“Oops! Look at that, my button popped …” Ben’s face froze, but he was looking at her, actually letting his eyes linger on the neckline of her blouse, his mouth half open in a way that made her heart race hopefully. This might be working! “Just like the budget needs to pop open—”

“Oh my god.” Ben slammed his fork down on his plate, and she was startled by how angry he looked all the sudden. “I knew this was what was going on. I knew it, and I can’t believe I let myself—” He stood up abruptly, throwing some bills down on the table, and Leslie felt a wave of guilt that he was paying for his own seduction dinner.

She tried to feign innocence. “Ben! What are you—”

“You _planned_ this.” His voice was low and tightly controlled, but his eyes were bright. They were flashing with annoyance and a few other emotions that she couldn’t put her finger on—possibly embarrassment, possibly disappointment, if either of those made sense for the situation, which they couldn’t possibly. She was the one who should feel embarrassed, and she did. She was mortified.

“Let’s go. I’ll drive you home,” he said emotionlessly.

Meekly, she followed him out of the restaurant and to his car. There was an apology on the tip of her tongue, because no matter what he did or what kind of person he was, she wasn’t this kind of person. She didn’t usually try to manipulate people in this way. 

He drove in silence for a minute, and she couldn’t make out his expression, but she could tell he was gripping the steering wheel tightly.

“I can’t believe this,” he said under his breath.

And the judgment dripping from those words made something inside her snap, because he had driven her to his, this was so important, and this was her last option, which had apparently just failed, and how could he not see that?

“How dare you.” She almost didn’t recognize the sound of her voice, the absolute acid she was lacing it with.

“How dare I? How dare I? You’re the one who—”

They started talking over each other, in sharp furious low voices that were somehow more biting than if they had just been yelling over each other.

“The one who what? The only one who cared enough to—”

“You think you’re the only one who—”

“I don’t do things like this. This isn’t me. This is your fault.”

“My fault? How is this possibly—”

“Everything was fine before you showed up. Everything was fine before you—”

“Damn it, Leslie, if I show up, then you can bet things were not fine, or I wouldn’t be there. It’s my job to—”

He had pulled up in front of her house, and she barely waited until the car was still before jumping out and racing to her door, fumbling to turn her key in the lock.

But she heard his footsteps behind her and swung around to face him again, almost in tears. They had this conversation a hundred times, and it was always the same, but somehow this time it felt different. It felt like he was attacking who she was and what she loved and—

Part of her knew what he was saying was true, that he hadn’t been the one to get them into this mess, and that he was only doing his job trying to get them out. But her whole world was falling apart lately, and he was the one casually marking numbers on spreadsheets while ignoring the fact of how much he was hurting everything she had dedicated her life to. How much he was hurting her. And in this moment, she wanted to hurt him back.

“Just because you’re jealous, just because you forgot how to care about anything, just because you’re too damned scared of failing again that you never ever let yourself care about anything, that doesn’t mean—” she gasped for air. “That doesn’t mean the rest of us—”

Through the tears that were streaming down her face now, she saw him recoil sharply, as if she had hit him. Which is exactly what she had done—she had hit him maliciously in the spot where she knew it would hurt most.

And the realization made her sick to her stomach. 

“Ben,” her voice was coming out in a strangled whisper now. “This isn’t … I’m not really … I’m just so sorry, I can’t even …”

He lunged for her, his arms reaching out, and she braced herself, thinking he was going to shake her or hit her or something else that she totally deserved at this moment.

But his hands landed abruptly on her upper arms, and before she knew what was happening, he was dragging her forward and up to his mouth. 

It would have been less shocking if he had actually taken a swing. She could have banished him from her property, even called the police to file an assault report, to have him thrown in jail or run out of town. 

But this, that wasn’t something she knew how to react to. Not something she could even escape from, with his fingers digging into her arms so hard and his lips so hungry and open, obliterating everything rational, everything sane. 

Not that she even tried to escape. She was so tired of fighting, so tired of trying so hard and coming up so short. And this kiss, this assault, whatever it was, felt like he was finally saying yes, even if it wasn’t to anything she had been asking. He had picked up on something she had been feeling and met it with a feeling of different but matching intensity. His response felt proportional for once.

Belatedly, she realized she was kissing him back, not just kissing him, but pretty much devouring his face. She kissed him with a passion that equaled her anger, that rivaled the strength of every frustration of the past four months, that echoed the desperation of every frantic brainstorming session or failed argument. His face was bearing the brunt of all of it now, because he was there, and she couldn’t help herself.

As she clutched him close, his right arm slid around her back while his left hand reached around her to fumble with the doorknob. Then they were falling through her open doorway, Ben kicking it shut behind them while gathering her up in his arms again. He evidently wasn’t going to give her a moment to come up for air or to call it off. She started backing toward her bedroom as his hands roamed her body and pulled at her clothing and pretty well persuaded her that she didn’t want to call if off even if he paused to give her the chance.

Before she knew what was happening, they were a naked tangle of limbs writhing in her bed, and for someone who she’d never given credit for giving a damn, he sure was returning her level of intensity now. It wasn’t angry or rough or punishing or anything like what she thought she deserved after the way she’d tried to use and then hurt him tonight. It was just emotional. It was frantic and fervent and a little unhinged.

It filled her with heat, anticipation, and not a little fear, because this wasn’t the plan. The plan wasn’t supposed to go this far, and it wasn’t supposed to feel this out of her control. It wasn’t supposed to be sliding against her body all hard and smooth, or clawing at her back, or kissing her neck.

But that didn’t stop her from spreading her legs under him, from arching her back and welcoming him into her body, and she gasped at the shock of him filling her up. 

He paused at that moment, gazing down at her face and really meeting her eyes for the first time since dinner, and there was a softness and a vulnerability there that made her forget every accusatory thought she’d ever had about him. It didn’t feel like sleeping with the enemy; she didn’t have a name for what this was, but it was far too intimate for that.

Before she had a chance to process, he was moving inside her, and there was too much else to focus on, too much else to just feel as their bodies moved in increasingly frantic rhythm, building up to an explosive release. 

When it was over, Ben pulled out but didn’t pull away. His body shifted down beside hers, his arm draping tightly around her, and his head tucking itself into the space between her shoulder and her neck. Trembling, she blinked up at the ceiling, trying to get her bearings and catch her breath, because—

Ben Wyatt was cuddling her. And for the moment it felt okay—surprisingly peaceful after everything she’d been through this summer, and everything they’d been through tonight.

Until suddenly he shifted, his eyes flicking up at her as he seemed to return abruptly to reality, realizing who she was, and who he was, and what they had just done.

And the realization made him wince violently, with his whole body. “Oh god,” he exhaled softly, sitting up. “Stupid, stupid,” he kept muttering under his breath, while flailing for his clothes and throwing them on in a hurry.

And not that she cared what Ben thought, but Leslie felt kind of stung by that. She knew she wasn’t exactly beautiful Ann, but she felt pretty good about her appearance, and even thought she had some talents in bed, and he had certainly seemed to have enjoyed those talents. And at any rate—

“You’re the one who kissed me,” she blurted defensively, as he was already lacing up shoes.

He stared at her for a moment, sad looking almost. “Yeah. I know.” He shook his head, like it was an Etch a Sketch that needed clearing, until it was returned to blankness. “Good night, Leslie.”

Pulling a sheet around herself, she ran after him, not knowing what she was going to say, but feeling like she still needed something else from him before he left.

“Ben!” she called out as he fingers closed on the front doorknob. He paused but didn’t turn to face her. “Why … why did you, if you knew what I was doing, why did you go along with it?”

He sucked in a long breath, then without turning around, answered her in a rough and gravelly voice. “Because I care. I just … I care.” 

Then he turned the knob and disappeared into the night, leaving her with a lump in her throat that settled into a ball of something resembling regret in the pit of her stomach. And it wasn’t just the budgetary favors that she knew her department wasn’t going to get after this night, the sedentary children, the jobs in danger, the vacant playgrounds. It wasn’t that at all, even.

It was something about the hints of easy camaraderie she felt at dinner before everything started to fall apart. It was something about the way his body curled against hers in the afterglow before they’d remembered themselves. It was the odd but unshakeable feeling that she had somehow found an ally and driven him away all in the same night.

\--

The next day, Leslie showed up at Ben’s office and rapped lightly on the open door until he looked up. He eyed her with the same blank Etch-a-Sketch of a face that he had been wearing on his way out the door last night. “Yes?” he said detachedly, and she couldn’t believe he was the person who ravaged her naked body not more than ten hours ago.

It was exactly the kind of robotic attitude that would have infuriated her before yesterday, would have made her wonder how he could so blasé about things that should matter. Now she had a pretty good idea that there was more to Ben than met the eye, that he cared a hell of a lot more than he was letting on. That’s why she pushed on.

“Hi, Ben. I was wondering if you’d like to join me for dinner again this evening,” she said in as normal a voice as she could muster.

His eyes darkened almost imperceptibly, and he looked back at his computer screen. “With or without the ulterior motives?” he asked in a tight, flat voice that made her wince.

“I’m sorry. I deserve that.” 

His face softened just the tiniest bit. “I’m sorry too. Look, Leslie. You know I can’t show you any favoritism. I wish I could. You know I do.”

“I believe you,” Leslie said, smiling as she considered briefly whether more sex and the possibility of future shared pots of turkey chili counted as ulterior motives. “Come over for dinner. Let’s just say I don’t have any motives related to the budget.”

One corner of his mouth twitched upward, and it was enough to let her know they were going to be okay. She felt like she knew him so much better today than yesterday, and whatever had happened last night, and whatever would happen going forward, at least the tension between them had been broken.

He sighed, glancing away while rubbing the back of his neck, then looked back at her with one his trademark crooked smiles. “See you at 7?”

She grinned back at him. “It’s a date, Ben.”


End file.
